Paris (AFP)
Eurosport has obtained the exclusive rights to broadcast the Tokyo Olympics 2020 after having reached an agreement with Canal + and France Televisions, which will broadcast him the competition in clear, announced Wednesday the sports television channel.
"Discovery (parent company of Eurosport, editor's note) welcomes the exclusive rights to pay for France, the 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo, through an agreement with the CANAL + Group and France Télévisions", announces Eurosport in a statement.
"Already holding the exclusive rights for the audiovisual rights of the Paris-2024 and Beijing-2022 Olympic Games, Eurosport is strengthening its offer with the Tokyo-2020 Games, which will run from July 24 to August 9, following an agreement with Canal + and France Télévisions, "the statement said.
The amount of this agreement has not been specified.
In fact, Canal + will not broadcast any competition next summer in Japan, where France Télévisions, official broadcaster in the clear, and Eurosport (pay) will broadcast the 339 events to the French public.
The media, owned by the American audiovisual group Discovery since 2015, strengthens its rights offering, even though it already held the exclusive rights for the Beijing-2022 and Paris-2024 Games.
"It's an extraordinary adventure and a huge challenge open to us, to offer to all fans, the entirety of the Paris Games, Beijing and now Tokyo in France", welcomed the General Manager of Discovery France , Laurent Prud'homme, quoted in the release.
"The competitions will be live live 24 hours a day on Eurosport 1 and 2 as well as Eurosport Player," says Eurosport.
The rights of Tokyo Olympics are part of a set of four editions, between 2014 and 2020, acquired in 2011 by the group France Televisions for a total amount estimated in the press at 140M € at the time.
Discovery also announced the signing in 2015 of a European-wide contract with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) between 2018 and 2024 against a check of 1.3 billion euros, the agreement only in France editions 2022 and 2024.
France Télévisions had obtained at the end of April from Discovery the exclusive rights in clear of these two competitions, including the highly anticipated edition 2024, for a secret amount, hailing a "historic partnership".
© 2019 AFP